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Contemporary Voices
5 / 7 The Jab: Homerton Hospital
'I am desperate
having the jab
In my backside
Her waters break
An embryo entombed
In its unconditional
pain.
I hear my voice
as absence
as life cries silent
The revolving door
The mute locked-up mind
Saved only by
my own reprisal
A poison pen
Made safer by
The doctor’s ills
For the jab
Is six of the
best at school.'
This poem by Karim Harvey was written in response to the Centerprise publication Every Birth It Comes Different. One of Karim's insights is that mental illness and giving birth are both cycles of agony and renewal.
From Every Birth It Comes Different, 1980